Electric Aircraft Airport Electric Utility Sizing Study Based on Multi-Layer Optimization Models

As the potential of e-aircraft in short-range routes becomes more prominent, the question of how to rationally plan airport electric infrastructure and efficiently produce it has become a key issue in the aviation industry’s efforts to move towards electrification. In this paper, we propose and construct a three-layer optimization model for determining the size of airport electric infrastructure, which is solved collaboratively at the three levels of strategic, tactical, and operational layers, in order to construct an optimization algorithm to minimize the construction and operation costs of electric infrastructure, and at the same time to ensure that flights are not delayed by the influence of electric power supply. Specifically, Stage-1 considers infrastructure sizes; Stage-2 assigns a binary charge–swap decision per turnaround under no-delay policy; Stage-3 schedules power under time-of-use tariffs and outputs a feasible day plan and daily cost. In order to verify the effectiveness of this paper’s algorithm, this paper conducts case studies and algorithm validation on actual flight data. The results show that the proposed model can significantly reduce the overall airport operating costs while ensuring normal flight operations.